PHWC Antimicrobials Sub Group

The Pig Health and Welfare Council (PHWC) Antimicrobials subgroup has the strategic aim to help the UK pig industry reduce the cumulative use of antimicrobials to comply with the rest of the EU. The reduction and more targeted use of antimicrobials usage is part of the global ‘One Health’ approach to reducing the risk of antimicrobial resistance.

These guidelines offer advice on using antibiotics when your veterinary surgeon recommends them to be appropriate for your farm and the current health situation in your pigs.

Antibiotic treatment should only be initiated after consultation with your veterinary surgeon. Pig farmers must ensure fundamentals such as ventilation, nutrition, water supply, housing, hygiene and biosecurity are well managed as these are crucial in controlling disease and reducing the need for antibiotics.

Where antibiotics are necessary, the advice in this guide recommends how to use them responsibly, to safeguard animal health and welfare. When used in conjunction with optimum management on farm, these measures aim to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics for use in human and animal medicine.

Antimicrobials study tour

A contingent from the UK visited Holland on a fact-finding mission to determine what approaches to antimicrobial stewardship, in use in the Netherlands, could be of benefit to the UK industry, as well as the lessons learnt from their experiences.

The day was structured in two parts, with a morning of presentations followed by a site visit to a Dutch pig farm, to gain an insight into the experiences in the field. Click here to read the report.

Best practice guide to antibiotic usage review on pig farms

A review containing guidance to help pig producers cut their use of antimicrobials has just been published.

It has been produced jointly by the Pig Health and Welfare Council Antimicrobial Sub-group and the Pig Veterinary Society. Download the report

O’Neill Report

The O’Neill Report on antimicrobial resistance has now been published and takes the view that it is a global problem.

The Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture alliance (RUMA) has issued a press release.